The Referrals Committee, Mr Justice Tony Hunt (Chairperson), Mr Raymond McSharry and Mr John Murphy convened at Offices of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board on Friday, 30 August 2024 to consider the referral of John Joseph Hanlon (Trainer) into potential breaches of the Rules of Racing.
The Referrals Committee issued their decision on Wednesday, 5 September 2024. The decision of the Referrals Committee can be read here.
An application was subsequently made to the Referrals Committee by Whelan Law Solicitors on behalf of Mr Hanlon to defer the effective date of the withdrawal of Mr Hanlon’s licence to train until 1 April 2025. The Referrals Committee also considered the position set out by the IHRB in this regard.
Having considered all correspondence in relation to the start date of the suspension, the Referrals Committee issued the following decision on Thursday, 12 September 2024. The decision of the Referrals Committee is set out below.
“With regard to the decision published on Thursday 5 September 2024 in this matter, the Committee was notified on behalf of Mr Hanlon on the afternoon of Friday 6 September 2024 that he wished to apply for a deferral of the sanctions imposed by the Committee. The Committee responded by email on Monday morning 9 September 2024 that it preferred to deal with the application by correspondence and indicated that it considered that, in principle, Mr Hanlon was entitled to a reasonable period to lodge and prosecute an appeal against the decision and/or to arrange to deal with the coming into effect of the sanctions. It proposed that, unless either party had further written observations on the issue, and in line with other cases, a reasonable date for deferral of the effective date of the sanctions imposed would be 1 December 2024.
By letter of Tuesday morning 9 September 2024, Mr Hanlon’s solicitors applied on his behalf for a deferral to 1 April 2025. The letter cited the nature and extent of Mr Hanlon’s business and the difficulty of making specified alternative arrangements within the deferral period initially proposed by the Committee.
On the same date the IHRB responded, acknowledging the issues that arose for Mr Hanlon, but submitting that the proposed deferral period of 10 weeks was sufficient and “at the outer limits of appropriateness from a regulatory perspective”. The position of the IHRB was that a deferral of sanctions for the extended period sought by Mr Hanlon would undermine the IHRB’s regulatory authority and the deterrent purpose of sanctions generally. It noted that other trainers had the same or a shorter period in previous cases to make such arrangements.
It was confirmed on Wednesday morning 11 September 2024 that no further submissions would be forthcoming. The Committee then considered the respective positions of the parties as set out in the relevant correspondence.
The Committee decided that it saw nothing in the material submitted to justify deviation from the initial suggestion that the effective date of the sanctions should be 1 December 2024. The Committee acknowledged in the initial decision that these sanctions would be burdensome for Mr Hanlon in various ways. However, there was nothing in his circumstances to differentiate them from those of other trainers put in the same position by similar decisions in other cases. These cases informed the initial proposal by the Committee of a deferral to 1 December 2024.
In summary, to defer a sanction of five or 10-months duration (depending on the ultimate approach taken by Mr Hanlon) for well over six months would tend to have the effects suggested by the IHRB and would disproportionately dilute the effect of the withdrawal sanction.
Accordingly, the Committee confirmed that the sanctions imposed in the initial decision will take effect on 1 December 2024.”
*Note to editor: Mr Hanlon has lodged an appeal against the severity of the sanction imposed.